Shimano PD-R540 SPD-SL Road Pedal

I am using the Shimano PD-R540 SPD-SL Road Pedal. I developed this clicking
noise in the left pedal when it is coming up over the top. The cleats were
pretty wore so I replaced them. Still have the clicking noise. Anyone ever
experience this problem? Could be the shoe or the pedal, I don't know. Hate
to stand up on a hill and have the pedal give out. TIA.

Steve R.

"Steven" wrote in message
.. .
I am using the Shimano PD-R540 SPD-SL Road Pedal. I developed this
clicking noise in the left pedal when it is coming up over the top. The
cleats were pretty wore so I replaced them. Still have the clicking noise.
Anyone ever experience this problem? Could be the shoe or the pedal, I
don't know. Hate to stand up on a hill and have the pedal give out. TIA.

Concerning pedals:

I was coming down a hill with quite a few curves in it. I was trying to
catch two guys I was riding with in front of me. I was using Crank Bros.
pedals. The cleats had about 1,500 miles on them - what looks like brass
cleats (though could be some other alloy) used on the steel pedals. I
accelerated up to 30 mph went into a left bend.

Apparently I turned my left foot slightly inward. Due to the wear on the
pedals my left foot broke out and swung away from the bike towards the
inside of the turn. I must have pulled it back and it went into the front
wheel spokes. The fork arm broke so rapidly (Easton EC70) that there was no
damage done to my foot though I was slammed left side into the road surface.

I lucked out: Shoulder, elbow and knee gouges (almost healed after three
weeks) The helmet struck the ground lightly doing little damage to the left
side but pushing the helmet down on my face and jamming the sunglasses into
my face causing a 3" long, deep cut near the line that usually runs from
your nose to the outside of your lip on that side. Also some minor skin
burns on the left side of the face. Bones in the sinus area are broken but
should heal satisfactorily.

After three weeks I'm nearly back to normal. Though I'm a lot more careful
going down hills.

This isn't a posting to criticize the Cranks Bros pedals. Though I believe
that they ought to make a harder metal cleat that wears a great deal better.

I have a couple of emails from people telling me that the Time off-road
pedals also wear cleats out rapidly. What's more they fail in the same
manner as the Crank Bros - towards breaking out easier as they wear.

My experience with Shimano SPD pedals is that the steel cleats wear a great
deal longer and the failure mode is that they become progressively more
difficult to break out of.

I have tried my old Look street pedals again as well. The plastic cleats
wear pretty rapidly - I get about 1,500 to 2,000 miles on a set because I
put my left foot down when I stop and that wears the cleat out. The actual
wear from use is pretty low and if it wasn't for putting your foot down on
the ground when you stop they'd probably last a great deal longer.

And the Look pedals feel a great deal more positive connection and when they
fail it tends to be pulling straight up and out.

At this point, it appears to me that the most reliable street pedal is the
Look and the most reliable off-road pedal is the SPD. But I haven't tried
many of the pedals.

The Crank Bros pedals are nice and simple and cheap and if they can develop
a longer wearing cleat that doesn't fail in the same way they do now, they'd
be a good off-road or road pedal.

"Steven" wrote in message
.. .
I am using the Shimano PD-R540 SPD-SL Road Pedal. I developed this
clicking noise in the left pedal when it is coming up over the top. The
cleats were pretty wore so I replaced them. Still have the clicking noise.
Anyone ever experience this problem? Could be the shoe or the pedal, I
don't know. Hate to stand up on a hill and have the pedal give out. TIA.

Steve R.

Have you removed the pedal, greased the threads and reinstalled it? I would
also remove the left crank arm and reinstall it as well.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA

On Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:48:29, Tom Kunich wrote:

The Crank Bros pedals are nice and simple and cheap and if they can develop
a longer wearing cleat that doesn't fail in the same way they do now, they'd
be a good off-road or road pedal.

I think the choice is between a faster wearing cleat/slower wearing
pedal, or faster wearing pedal with a long lasting cleat. Since
things are grinding against and sliding past one another, whichever
one is harder is going to wear out the other on, so one must consider
one or the other to be consumable. I would rather replace cleats than
pedals. Improving the failure mode is a different factor. I
personally prefer a failure mode of "releases more easily"
vs. "releases become harder."

Are you sure you didn't have a pedal strike? One of the few
complaints about the Crank Bros design is that pressure on the bottom
of the pedal, e.g. from a pedal strike, can cause it to release the
cleat. Time ATACs use a similar "spring tension" method for binding
to the cleat, but their design avoids that issue.

-alan

--
Alan Hoyle - - http://www.alanhoyle.com/

"Alan Hoyle" wrote in message
...

Are you sure you didn't have a pedal strike? One of the few
complaints about the Crank Bros design is that pressure on the bottom
of the pedal, e.g. from a pedal strike, can cause it to release the
cleat. Time ATACs use a similar "spring tension" method for binding
to the cleat, but their design avoids that issue.

I corner with the inside pedal up.

There is absolutely NO reason that a cleat would last only 1500 miles. All
of these pedal cleats are designed from scratch to be income items. Why
would a cleat wear faster than the soles of your shoes?

On the Shimano road pedals, the black plastic contact surface of the
pedal wears out relatively quickly, in my experience as fast or faster
than the cleats (I have about 30k miles on two pairs of Shimano road
SPD-SLs). (Note to Kunich: he has the road pedals with plastic Look-
like delta cleats.) It's a black plastic piece sitting over the pedal
axle with "Shimano" impressed into it on both the dura-ace pedals and
105-level pedals. You can buy a replacement part for under ten bucks.
Maybe wear there is creating the clicking.

They are a pretty great design in all other respects, I think.